Social Creed
The 216th General Assembly (2006)  asked the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) with the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations and the Department of Theology and Worship to continue work on updating for the 21st century the 1908 “Social Creed of the Churches” for presentation at the 218th General Assembly (2008) to celebrate the centennial of the “Social Creed of the Churches” of 1908.
See the proposed “Social Creed for the 21st Century” received for study by the NCCC with its two-page background statement.
See the Presbyterian Panel Summary Report on "The Social Creed"
Assembly approves new social creed, the first in a century
SAN JOSE, June 27, 2008 — By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.
Commissioners defeated a alternate motion that would have sent the 2008 creed to churches for study before the 2010 Assembly. [Keep reading]
Committee approves new social creed
SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — One hundred years after “A Social Creed of the Churches” joined Christians together to work to ease the human costs of industrialization, General Assembly’s Social Justice Issues Committee passed a new social creed Tuesday to “meet the challenges of sustainability and globalization.”
The vote was 54-19 with one abstention to approve recommending “A Social Creed for the 21st Century” to the 218th General Assembly. The new creed will be forwarded to member churches in the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) for their ratification.
During a lengthy debate, youth advisory delegate Michael Mishkovsky urged the creed’s adoption. “Why do you think kids aren’t joining the church?” he asked. “It’s because we don’t pass things like this. I want to be defined by love, and this is the way.” [Keep reading]
From Horizons magazine May/June 2008
Celebrating 100 Years of Social Awareness:
The Social Creed for the 21st Century
by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty
Economic issues weigh heavily on the minds of citizens of the United States. Stories about the rise in foreclosure rates across the nation and reports concerning the growing disparity between the rich and the poor have begun to appear more frequently in newspaper headlines in recent months. These and other problems leave many people of faith feeling overwhelmed and wondering about their own responsibility to respond to such problems. We are in desperate need of change. Where might we look to understand the changes that are needed in the United States and in the larger global context? Are there visions for change that might help us faithfully consider public policies that will ensure our society promotes equality, justice, fairness and peace?
I believe there are visions for such change, and that the community of faith is ready to answer some of these difficult questions. Though churches are not always known for their progressive nature or openness to social change, churches have a long history of prophetic activity.
How have people of faith put their faith to work in the public, political sphere? And how are they doing it today? Find out by reading the full text of this article in the May/June issue of Horizons.
Learn how to order this issue.
From the Presbyterian News Service
April 18, 2008
PC(USA), NCC leaders to join in Earth Day ceremony
Presbyterians are first denomination to consider new Social Creed
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) will share leadership of a worship service at the Presbyterian Center here April 22 to mark Earth Day and celebrate the ecological vision contained in the new ecumenical Social Creed for the 21st Century. [Read more]
From the Presbyterian News Service
November 16, 2006
NCC member churches mull new Social Creed
PC(USA) leads effort to commemorate 1908 creed with a new one
The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) has received for study the draft of a “social creed” that commemorates and builds upon the original Social Creed of the Churches of 1908 calling for economic and social justice.
“It is not enough to celebrate the centennial of the 1908 social creed,” said the Rev. Chris Iosso, a Presbyterian instrumental in the ecumenical development of the new document, entitled “A Social Creed for the 21st Century. [Read more] |
